Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of a people inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and parts of the western Malay Archipelago.
  • noun The Austronesian language of the Malays.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Malays or their language.
  • adjective Of or relating to Malaysia, the Malay Peninsula, or the Malay Archipelago.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A native of Malacca or of the Malay peninsula, or of the adjacent islands.
  • noun The language of the Malays. It is a dialect belonging to the Malayan branch of the Malay-Polynesian family.
  • noun A variety of the domestic hen, having a tall and slender shape like that of the exhibition game, but larger, and long legs and neck and a close, low tail.
  • Of or pertaining to the Malays or to their country. Also Malaic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • proper noun One of a race of a brown or copper complexion in the Malay Peninsula and the western islands of the Indian Archipelago.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the Malays or their country.
  • adjective (Bot.) a myrtaceous tree (Eugenia Malaccensis) common in India; also, its applelike fruit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of or relating to the Malays, a people living in Brunei, on the eastern coast of Sumatra, the islands of Bangka and Belitung, the Riau archipelago and the coastal areas of Kalimantan in Indonesia, in most of Malaysia (states where they are politically dominant), in Singapore and in the southernmost provinces of Thailand.
  • adjective usage generally frowned upon by Malays and Malaysians of or related to Malaysia, its people and/or culture.
  • adjective in, of or otherwise relating to Malay, a generic name for the languages spoken by Malays.
  • noun A person of Malay ancestry, referring to a diverse group of Austronesian peoples inhabiting the Malay archipelago and Malay peninsula in Southeast Asia.
  • noun Type of mild curry made with yoghurt and fruit, usually pineapple or lychee.
  • proper noun The Malay language, an Austronesian language spoken by most Malay people and in states they dominate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a member of a people inhabiting the northern Malay Peninsula and Malaysia and parts of the western Malay Archipelago
  • adjective of or relating to or characteristic of the people or language of Malaysia and the northern Malay Peninsula and parts of the western Malay Archipelago
  • noun a western subfamily of Western Malayo-Polynesian languages

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete Dutch Malayo, from Malay Melayu.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Recorded in English since 1598; from Malay Melayu, from Malayu, a kingdom on Sumatra's eastern coast (today's Jambi), mentioned by chinese Monk Yijing as 末羅瑜國 and under the Yuan (1271-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties as 木剌由 (Bok-la-yu or Mok-la-yu), 麻里予兒 (Ma-li-yu-er), 巫来由 (Wu-lai-yu) and 無来由 (Wu-lai-yu). The oldest known inscriptions in the Malay language were found at Kedukan Bukit and Talang Tuo, both in the vicinity of Palembang in southern Sumatra, and at Kota Kapur on Bangka island west of Sumatra. They are respectively dated 673, 684 and 686 A. D. Exonymous explanation from Malayalam മല (Mala or Malai, "mountain") not demonstrated.

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